


Fade

by HiMiTSu



Category: Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Angst, Canon Compliant, M/M, Prompt Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-02
Updated: 2016-11-15
Packaged: 2018-07-28 22:58:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,087
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7660300
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HiMiTSu/pseuds/HiMiTSu
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>For a tumblr propmt: soulmate au (everything is black and white until you meet your soulmate</p><p>Chapter 2 is a variation for a future scenario.:  "It's incomprehensible but Lex can see color again. It should not be possible. And yet..."</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Fade

**Author's Note:**

> I try to fit the prompts within the movie canon when it’s possible so I did it here.
> 
> (Also I hope I didn't mess up the grammar too badly. Please, let me knows if I did. I kind of feel rusty)

Lex is watching. It’s surprisingly easy to blend in with the crowd in the morning rush. He lowers the cap down over his eyes and pushes through the tourist group, hoping he had not missed the target. He catches a glance from a young girl waiting in the line for coffee and her face lights up with recognition but Lex puts a finger to his mouth, winking playfully. It makes this little meeting their own personal secret and the girl preens at the honor and smiles back and keeps her mouth shut.  Good.

Lex steps around the bus stop crowd and finally slows down by a non-descript apartment building. Nothing special except for the prize it keeps inside. He lingers there, looks at his mobile to check the time. Instead focuses on a text from Mercy. She is asking him to get back to LexCorp. In a very straight manner she warns that his impulsiveness will ruin them. She always does this. Lex ignores it. Looks up at the building again. Third window on the fourth floor.

Lex changes his mind and sends Mercy an emoji. Smiling. Upside down.

His phones pings with a new message, no doubt an angry retort, but he ignores it this time. Watches how the lights go out in the flat. Feels his skin tingle with anticipation.

He leans casually by the building across the street, most likely looking like a proper creep loitering while the crowd rushes by. He bites his lip when the door is pushed open and a figure steps out, in a hurry gets the jacket snagged by the door handle, scrambles to free himself, glasses falling down his nose. Free, he looks up and around, assessing the movement around him and dives into the flow, just another passer-by in a hurry.

Lex followы at a moderate pace, keeping his target in sighе while falling behind not to get noticed. Not that the man is expecting any pursuit. Not that Lex has anything on his mind but to catch a proper look.

Clark Kent turns, avoiding a crush with an elderly woman, and smiles at her and…

And Lex feels a wave of dizziness hit him and his eyes grow out of focus. He pauses, leans on a lamp post, the unexpected weakness making him lose his step. When he looks up, fingers still gripping the metal to keep steady, his target is already out of sight. Lex knows where he is heading, has the route mapped out with any variables taken into account. Which holds absolutely no meaning to him at that moment.

The world comes into focus again, slowly as if his eyes need to adjust all over again, and colors start creeping in from the sides. Very pale, very light, like coming out of a fog, but Lex notices them all the same. Squeezed his eyes shut, hoping to chase away the unwanted blue of the sky. It doesn’t help. The colorы rush in and he bites his lip until it bleeds and then wipes the red blood away with his hand.

This doesn’t change anything.

He takes out a phone to text Mercy.

 _“How is the operation SuperBat going?”_ Winky face.

He gets to planning with renewed vehemence.

* * *

 

Lex has a plan. To be fair, Lex always has a plan. This one, however, is of a more personal nature. It’s only his and is simple and effortless so he has not even informed Mercy. He prefers to keep this recent development to himself.

He doesn’t know if Mercy can see color, though the way she stares at the kryptonite makes him wonder. And he can’t blame her – Lex is unable to tear his eyes away too. This inconvenience, he thinks with distaste, has got at least one good side to it. He is now able to appreciate the beauty of the bright green playing on the surface of a rock from another planet. How bright it is. How it only gets more shine the deeper it goes. How the surface is dusted with darker shades, tarnished by its time under the sea. It’s the most beautiful thing Lex had ever seen. He is mesmerized, could spend hour and hours, watching the shapes in the depth of the kryptonite. For that he is grateful. So he enjoys the power while it lasts, because if everything goes according to plan – and it will – the world will drop back into black and white soon enough.

Lex will have found himself a new amusement by that time.

But for now…now he has a small scheme of his own, crafted carefully to ensure that Clark Kent will not be able to tell who his soulmate is.

The process is not immediate, Lex knows. He has read the research. He had it confirmed by his own experience. It is also slowed down by alcohol. Which might not actually work in case of an alien with super metabolism but Clark would not know it. So he sends a waiter to circle the crowd of journalists and Kent, who refuses a glass once, twice, finally gives up on the third time.

Lex talks to the representatives from the library, they smile and thank him and hope for more donations. It’s infinitely boring but he needs to kill some time before the big speech. Kent spends it observing the crowd, taking absolutely no notes what so ever, not even tries talking to any other patrons. Bruce Wayne had caught his eye, Mercy informed Lex earlier. That’s good. Disgusting but good.

Lex doesn’t want to feel a bite of jealousy, the bitter taste of it in his mouth that even champagne can not wash away. But he does, so he drinks until Mercy swoops in and replaces it with sparkling cider. It doesn’t matter any way – Lex could never get properly drunk. The time for the speech comes and finally Clark Kent is looking at him, but not paying any attention. Which is good. Bad. Good.

Good because he won’t realize what brought on the change.

Lex rushes through the speech, bit and pieces of his real thoughts slipping and spilling onto the confused crowd before him. And _now_ Kent is watching him, his brows scrunched in polite puzzlement at Lex’s complete lack of control. And then, suddenly, he turns. Lex could see his profile: the frown lines had grown deeper from real concern. Ah. So it has started then.

By the time he gets to Kent and Bruce Wayne, finally, finally introducing himself, Kent must have been properly perplexed and hopefully very anxious. His eyes keep darting to Bruce until suddenly they stop on Lex. On Lex’s hair. Red, Lex was pleased to see the day before. He rather liked the color.

Kent seems unable to look away. Confused. Once again confused. Befuddled. Puzzled. Bewildered. Lex’s smiles stretches wide. But he needs to make his exit before Kent can fully realize. He gets away, excuse easily presenting itself, and gets lost in the crowd. Curious. Are Kent’s eyes following him? Trying to catch another glimpse of ginger hair among the guests. Lex can’t give him that pleasure though. He shakes off the library curator and leaves the party. This should be enough.

* * *

 

“It’s rather poetic, isn’t it?” Lex says to the man kneeling at his feet. No. Not a man. A god. Dressed in red and blue – garish enough to make Lex regret seeing colors.

He reaches out. But he can’t touch. He could touch Clark Kent, that parody of a human, but he can’t bring himself to touch Superman.

“You are mine.” Lex enunciates, pleased beyond belief how Superman’s eyes widen. “In every way.”

And it’s the delicious truth. He owns Superman’s body, thanks to a beautiful plan born out of his cunning mind and an ordinary woman whose kindness had saved this atrocity of a man long ago. But he also owns Superman’s soul. And that makes the fire burning in the other’s eyes – tamed – all the more satisfying.

“Mine to love.” Lex spats the words. They have no meaning to him, so twisted and tarnished they fall from his lips like a curse. In his next words he believes with all his heart. “Mine to kill.”

And he sends Superman away to the fight that will either kill him or destroy him.


	2. In And Out Of Focus

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's incomprehensible but Lex can see color again. It should not be possible. And yet...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wanted to write another part to this for a long time. We all know Superman is coming back so I was curious about how that might fit in this universe.
> 
> I am basing Amanda Waller on how she is portrayed in Suicide Squad movie. And, since I've never read comics, the whole thing is mostly my imgination - I don't know if Lex Luthor ever met Amanda Waller and whether or not they liked each other. (But my bet is still on 'not')

There is something strange with Amanda Waller, Lex notices. Not only her behavior: the usual arrogance subdued somehow, but apart from that, which makes a small mystery on its own, there is something different about her looks. He can’t quite pinpoint it and she doesn’t linger for long, just stands in front of his cell; her face, on the other side of the bars, inscrutable as ever. She asks a question, he says ‘No’ and she doesn’t give him a chance to taunt her like usual, does not allow him this moment to feed his ego. She hopes, usually, that if she allows him to feel superior, however it pains her, he will give up. Give in to her suggestions and offers, join her little team and help her ‘save the world’. At these words Lex always bursts into laughter – he had already rid the world from one monster, why does she insists on bringing in more?

“These ones I can control,” she says. The same conversation over and over, but Lex doesn’t believe her. Those pets will get to her throat eventually.

This time though…She asks – like always. He gives a customary refusal. It’s a ritual at this point. But then she regards him, coldly and attentively, and Lex looks back from his cell, noting the tight press of her mouth. She wants to say something else, that much is obvious, so Lex waits and plasters a taunting smile to his face. His hands grip the bars while he is leaning his forehead on the cold metal, gaze fixed on those dark orbs of her eyes. The whites stand out harshly – she is all black and white, more darkness then light to her and it suits her, because this is what she is. The world will brand her as a villain any day now, like it turned its back on Lex, and he can’t wait for that moment. Maybe then she will start asking. Or maybe instead of saving the world she will offer to burn it. Lex is curious to see how this plays out.

But she says nothing and turns on her heels and disappears down the corridors – a lonely silhouette against the black walls and white light.

An idea tugs at the back of his mind, an observation that had not yet taken shape, but Lex doesn’t understand.

As soon as the door closes behind Amanda Waller he lets go of the metal bars and staggers to the back wall and stretches on the cot. It’s chilly in the cell but he leaves the covers untouched. He sleeps better in the cold anyway.

He notices it the next time she comes around. It’s too soon; she rarely shows up more than once every couple of weeks, but by Lex’s calculations, a wall riddled with marks, it had only been three days. He wonders if she had finally snapped. Or had she snapped a long time ago and was just good at concealing it? Better than him at any rate.

Waller is the only one who comes to see him; only the cameras monitor Lex’s time at the cell and food is delivered so quickly and efficiently sometimes he doesn’t even see how the guards come. He stopped trying to catch a glimpse long time ago. It wasn’t that interesting anymore.

Lex prefers to spend his time thinking, coming up with new plans and ideas, etching imaginary lines on the stark white ceiling.

Waller stands before him again, mere days after their previous meeting, silent.

Something must have happened. Something big.

Lex grins, curious beyond measure, and hangs onto the cold metal of the door, bringing his face as close to hers as possible.

“Amanda,” he tilts his head in greeting. “How nice of you to visit again.”

She is quiet still; Lex’s mind rushes with dozens ideas – there are so many things that could have happened and required his expertise, and only eight of those possibilities revolve around LexCorp. Who knew what had happened during his years of incarceration?

Lex’s eyes roam over her face, searching for clues, a frown, a shift, a line – anything that can hint at her thoughts. And then he realizes something. Her skin isn’t black. It’s dark, but not the pitch black that shows an absence of color. It has a hue to it, deep and complex, and her irises are dark brown with speckles of lighter shade. There are red veins in the whites that speak of exhaustion and stress, probably long sleepless nights at work.

Her suit is black but it has a slight dusting of white chalk on her sleeve and is a little greying around the collar. There is a barely noticeable splatter of red on the white cuff of her shirt. The colors are not two-dimensional for him; not the mix of darkest black and pure white he is used to. Everything has a tone and shadows are not all the same anymore, deeper in the corners and lighter in the middle of his cell.

Waller scoffs and he whips his head to look back at her. He was so busy staring at the dark grey floor he got distracted from the main attraction. She understands what is running through his head. And at that moment Lex knows that the design of his cage – all black floors and whites walls – is not coincidental.

“I can see color,” he says.

She smiles; it is an ugly grin, full of smugness and barely hidden malice. “You do, Mr. Luthor.”

“This shouldn’t be possible.” He contradicts just to have something to say and stave away a panic building in his mind. _This can’t be happening._

“And yet here you are,” Waller replies. Not helpful at all. Enjoying his confusion.

He knows now why she came to him three days before, why she is standing here now. His thoughts crash one into another but one burns, _burns_ , in his mind – how does she know? He was so careful, no one knew, not even Mercy. It’s the secret he kept closest, knowing how big of a weakness it might be. But she knows…Somehow Amanda Waller knows. Or maybe, he squints at her, she is merely bluffing. But in that case he had given away too much already. Lex schools his face into a neutral expression but it might be too late. Waller smirks, smug.

“You know what that means,” she states.

Lex keeps silent. He is angry, at himself more than at anyone else.

The woman nods, accepting his stubbornness to spill anything else. It doesn’t matter. Lex had been fooling himself thinking they were on even ground – she not only has power over him; that he can accept even if it horrifies and enrages him, but she is more informed than him and that Lex cannot stand.

He _knows_ what it means, but he will deal with that later. Now he has Amanda Waller digging her claws into him and if he plays this right he might gain an advantage. So he digs his nails into his palms and the pain takes the edge off his agitation. He gives a terse nod. Waits for the question.

“Will you help us find him?”

He nods again; then surges forward and grips the bars. He feels blood, sticky and cold, between his skin and metal; it’s disgusting and his mind flashes back to the night Superman died, murdered by a creature born out of Lex Luthor’s blood. He pushes the image away, later, he will deal with this later, and talks furiously low.  “What will I get out it?”

Waller shrugs, relaxed and confident in her position of power. “I assume you want freedom?”

“You can’t grant me that,” he scoffs. “I had heard about your _squad_.”

“I won’t just let you go. You will get a monitor.”

And by _monitor_ she means a bomb. Lex knows that much. Isolated from the world doesn’t necessary imply he knows nothing about what is going on. He is not interested in becoming one of her disposable pets. He spits as much into her face.

“Don’t worry, Mr. Luthor,” she assures but there is nothing to make him trust her words. “You are too valuable to just throw you into a fight. It’s your brain we are interested in.”

Like that does not sound menacing. Lex knows better than to trust her. But he also knows that her skin is chocolate brown and a pin on her lapel is red with grey. Knows he cannot hide away. He doesn’t want to.

“Alright, Miss Waller. Get me out of here and we talk.”

She smiles a winning grin, small but self-assured, and Lex is angry once again. He is putting himself in a corner and he has no plan for getting out yet and he watches her go, furious. But when the door closes behind Amanda Waller and Lex in left alone it fades away and he slides down to the floor, suddenly weak. He smears blood on the bars on his way down, enjoys a jolt of pain it gives him. Panics.

He can see color. It’s incomprehensible in on itself, but what it implicates…it blows his mind. It shouldn’t be possible, but it is. Superman’s death should not have been possible but Lex was good at doing what nothing else can. Superman should be dead, but it looked like someone else was also good at impossible.

His hands shake and he grips the metal stronger. It doesn’t help – his whole body is trembling and his features cannot settle on either a frown or a smile. A laugh tears from his throat, hysterical. He bows his head and laughs and laughs. _It should not be possible._

Superman is alive. His lips form the words, but no sound comes out. He is hidden by a curtain of red hair – they had grown out during the years he had been in this prison, as he repeats the words to himself. It’s a litany. A prayer he does not want to give but it forces itself with every breath.

_Superman is alive._

It’s crazy. But he feels both dread and relief alike.


End file.
